thoughts about food, craft, and living well

Sweet and sour chard

I have to start with an apology. Work seems to have been getting busier and busier and I have dropped the blog ball for the last few weeks. I am sorry! I will try to do better — I promise.

A sign of how bad it’s been is that I made this incredibly good sweet and sour chard weeks ago, and have not had the time to post the recipe. I also have to admit that my photos of the dish are sorely lacking.

But, here goes.

Chard. It’s piled up in the grocery stores here right now, and massively piled up at the farmer’s market too. It’s not one of those vegetables that I have always eaten, but now that I do eat it I wonder why I waited so long to start. There’s something about the taste, the texture, how it adapts to so many flavors — not to mention how good it is for you!

*photos taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone.

The night I invented this dish I was also making an incredibly tasty dish of chicken thighs and figs (yes, I know I should post that recipe, too — for those of you who must know, I found the chicken recipe in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook) and wanted something tangy and flavorful to serve alongside that.

Here’s what I made.

Sweet and sour chard

(serves four as a side dish)

1 generous bunch rainbow chard (you could also use kale or another kind of chard)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ cup chopped onion

3 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 large tomato, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup golden raisins

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon coarse salt

½ teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Prepare chard by cutting off stems and chopping them, then removing the stems from the leaves (you don’t have to do this for the full length of the leaf, just near the bottom where the stems are widest) and chopping them. Chop the leaves coarsely. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan.

Add onions and stir until they begin to wilt. Add garlic. Stir until it also begins to soften.

Add chard stems, tomatoes and golden raisins. Stir until the tomatoes begin to release their juices.

Add chard leaves, vinegar, honey, salt and hot pepper flakes, stir to mix and cover the pan. Let the mixture cook for about 15 minutes, over medium – low heat , stirring occasionally, until chard has softened and is no longer tough.